


Flustered

by alessandralee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Library, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 17:26:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2278374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Skye wants to do is take a nap in the library between classes. Too bad two grad students can't keep quiet, and one of them is really cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flustered

Skye cursed her procrastination skills as she settled down at an empty table in the library’s fourth floor silent study section. If only she hadn’t spent the entire semester procrastinating on her assignments, then she wouldn’t have had to pull an all-nighter writing the code for her final project, and she wouldn’t need to take a nap in the library during her break between classes. She promised herself that next semester she’d budget her time better. Then again, she’d said the same thing last semester.

Checking the time on her phone, Skye determined that she could get in an hour of napping and still have time to buy a cup of coffee before heading to her World History review session. The nap and the caffeine could probably keep her awake until dinner. Hopefully.

Her three semesters at Shield University, and bad habit of staying up until 4 AM browsing message boards has turned Skye into an expert napper. She placed her backpack on the table in front of her, then peeled off her purple flannel and balled it up into a passable pillow and piled it on top of her bag. Then she set alarm to go off in 50 minutes (allowing her to hit the snooze button once), plugged in her headphones so the alarm wouldn’t bother anyone, should they decide to set up in the room, and shut her eyes.

She was just about to doze off when two voices startled her from the nearby stacks.

“But Simmons, do we really need a book source? This one was published in… 1972. Why would we use a book that’s nearly twice as old as we are, when we can use a journal article from a few months ago?”

The voice was clearly male, with a Scottish accent that got thicker the more irritated he became. And he managed to get very irritated in only a few quick sentences.

“We need a book source because Doctor Weaver says we need a book source,” the other voice is English, female, and carries a tone that does not allow arguing. “I’m not getting points deducted because you refused to fulfill necessary requirements. Besides, I’m sure we can find some sort of relevant theory in one of these books. This one’s even from 2007.”

There’s a brief pause, enough to make Skye think that maybe they just left. But then the Scot spoke up again, this time from much closer to Skye.

“But it’s a stupid requirement. We haven’t needed a book source before, and our work has been nearly flawless.”

Skye sighed and raised her head to glare in the direction of the voices, in the process seeing that the Scot is a curly haired guy, dressed in a short-sleeved button down, tie and ill-fitting khakis. His companion, who Skye has determined must be Simmons, is a petite brunette in a pinstripe blouse and dark jeans.

They both startle a bit when they finally notice her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Simmons said, clearly embarrassed. “We didn’t realize anyone else was up here. Anyway, Fitz was just heading off to teach Circuit Analysis, and I’ll be quiet. You can go back to sleep; you won’t even notice I’m here.”

She practically pushed Fitz towards the stairs, mumbling something to him about checking out books. When the door closes behind him, Skye puts her head back down.

She can hear Simmons unzip a bag and set a laptop down on the table next to her. A few seconds later there’s a loud chime as it turns on.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Simmons apologizes again, her voice now even more flustered.

Skye opened her eyes without bothering to move her head.

One table over, Simmons was blushing from the edge of her shirt collar to the tip of her hairline. She was also furiously tapping what Skye assumed to be the computer’s mute button. Skye can’t help but notice she’s cute when she blushes.

“It’s fine,” she reassured her, “I don’t think I have time for a real nap anyway. I’m Skye.”

Technically, she could get a lot of rest in 40 minutes, but she couldn’t even guarantee that she’d fall asleep immediately. And besides, she’d been so busy doing last minute school work, that she’s pretty sure the last face to face conversation she had was two nights ago with her friend Mike Peterson, when he came to pick up his son Ace from Skye’s place after his night class.

And okay, talking to a cute, flustered girl trumped sleep any day.

“Jemma Simmons,” she replied with a smile and a hand held out to shake, “and that was Fitz.”

“So you’re grad students? In engineering?” Skye asked, awkwardly leaning out of her chair to shake Jemma’s hand. She said Fitz was teaching, and they’re way too young to be professors (although Jemma doesn’t look that much older than her, she would have guessed senior before grad student). Also Skye’s pretty sure Mike’s mentioned that Circuit Analysis is an engineering class, although not one that he’s had to take.

“Just Fitz. I’m in biochem. We’re starting our joint thesis project and our advisor requested a larger variety of sources for our proposal. As you may have noticed, Fitz has strong feelings about the timeliness of books.”

The last sentence is said conspiratorially, as though Jemma’s let her in on a secret frustration. But she doesn’t sound angry, really, and she’s definitely not holding it against Fitz. But maybe Jemma just manages to make everything sound welcoming.

“I’m a computer science major. Sophomore,” Skye offered, a small part of her worried that Jemma will think she’s an immature undergrad.

“Oh.”

A worry that might not be entirely unfounded.

Clearly super cute graduate student Jemma is way out of Skye’s league.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that Fitz is usually the computer whiz. I can use my lab equipment, and search databases, but he could talk your ear off about processors and modems and everything. He and our friend Trip are building the engineering department a new computer, from scratch.”

“It’s fine. Much less competitive that way,” Skye jokes.

“Listen,” Jemma began, “I’m supposed to be grading papers on the mating habits of fruit flies, but I juts can’t must the enthusiasm. Do you want to go get coffee with me, my treat? It’s the least I can do after Fitz and I completely ruined your nap. I know how vital those can be at the end of the semester.”

Or perhaps super cute graduate student Jemma Simmons is totally in her league. Maybe she was just being polite, but maybe Skye actually had a chance with the warm and welcoming girl with the sexy as hell accent.

“I could definitely do coffee.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not used to writing in the past tense, so sorry if things got a little wonky at any point. I tried to look it over, but I might have confused myself.


End file.
